Curicó, Maule, Chile

70km north of Talca, Curicó is THE wine centre of Chile. I arrived in time to enjoy the superb Fiesta de Vendiema wine festival. This is an excellent opportunity to taste a lot of different varieties from a lot of different wineries all in the one place. They close the streets around the magnificent Plaza de Armas off to traffic and open it up to bandstands and winestalls, foodstalls, hadicraft stalls, and street barbecues. The celebrations, folk dancing, traditional music, bands, winery competitions keep going for four days - a perfect break from the strenuous climbs and peaceful forests of the mountains.

Curico is a pretty town. It has one of the nicest Plaza de Armas I´ve met: fountains, trees, benches and a popular meeting or time-out point. There are quite a few parks and squares and tree-lined boulevards. The bus station and train station are next to each other and a short walk to the town centre. There are very many fine restaurants. It´s an urban centre, so if you want a long walk in a forest, you´ll need to travel a fair way.

It´s been pretty hard hit by the earthquake. After withstanding 300 years, including the devastating earthquakes of the late 1800s and 1961, the San Francisco church has lost its whole entry and wil take a lot of work to restore. The cathedral at the Plaza also needs much work. The La Prensa colonial building has been destroyed, and requires further demolition work sbefore they can build a new replacement. But life goes on, the town is full of hope and concentrates on the future.